Brian’s Guide To Pre-Season

As part of a schedule Eastick has devised with both the fans and players in mind, The Reds will travel to face the likes of Rotherham and MK Dons, while the announcement of a friendly at The City Ground is expected in the coming days.

Eastick also revealed the club will fly out to a Portuguese training camp to take on Porto B and Rio Ave.

He said: “I’ve been very conscious about minimising travel for the players, while also taking the fans into consideration. The last thing they need is to be flying all over the place.

“I think we’ve done well to get these arrangements in place. Importantly, there are some decent venues for the supporters to go to.

“Once the players are back in, the sports science department will carry out two days of testing before we begin the ball work.

“That will give us a good two-week lead into the first friendly away at Ilkeston. It’s a local game, they have a good playing surface and we’ll probably give most of the players a 45-minute run out.

“We then fly to Portugal on Sunday 13 July, where we will play two matches, one against Rio Ave (Saturday 19 July). Both of the fixtures will be played no more than 40 minutes away from our base.

“We get back to England on 20 July and travel to Rotherham, who have a nice new stadium, the following Wednesday (23 July). They could be in the same division as us next season but we’ve discussed that with their manager, Steve Evans, and we’re not concerned about it.

“After that we go to MK Dons for Dean Lewington’s testimonial (Sunday 27 July). Dean’s been a great servant to the club and we know his dad, Ray, from the England set-up. It’s another nice stadium with a good surface and, again, it’s not too far for our fans to travel.”

Eastick also confirmed Forest will travel to face League Two side York City on Wednesday 30 July (kick-off 7.30pm).

He said: “There might be a mixture of players in the squad at York, depending on how many minutes people have played. Stuart will look at that nearer the time.”